On Thursday night, we held our information meeting. We were so excited because we had a great turn out - around 40 people, and all of them chose to sign up for reading sessions! Each of us has between 9-11 readers, and that is perfect. Friday we had our first day of reading. It went so well! I have to admit that all through our training it seemed strange to me to use the Bible to teach English conversation skills, but Ian kept telling me that LST works really well in Japan. He was definitely right. It is funny, because all of my readers say that they are not very good at speaking English, but except for one lady, they are all really close to fluent in English, which creates good opportunity for deep faith conversations. Knowledge and learning is very highly valued in this culture, and so a program like LST really draws Japanese people in. Our first goal is to get to know our readers so they will feel comfortable with us. Below I will list the names of my readers (with and M/F so you can know if they are male or female) and give a brief description of who they are so that you can pray for them by name!
Etsuko (F) - She is a sweet and very enthusiastic lady. Her children are both grown, and she is very fun to talk to. Today we read the story of the angel telling Mary she was pregnant. She had never heard the story before! For me it was hard to believe that someone could be 50 years old and not know at least the basics of the Jesus story. She said she thought that a virgin birth sounded very strange. Our seed thought for that lesson is "God can do anything." After we talked about that, she said that even though it was strange, she believes that God can do miracles.
Masatomo (M) - He was a mechanical engineer for Toshiba and is now retired. He worked in the US for a few years, so his English is very good, but pronunciation is a little difficult to understand. He is a very smart man, and is Buddhist. He has done LST before, so we picked up with the lesson about the wise man who built his house upon the rock and the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. He really responded positively and gave me several examples of how important it is to have a good foundation from his own life experiences. We then talked about how this was a parable, and the kind of foundation Jesus was saying we should build our lives on.
Yoshiko (F) - She is a sweet Christian lady who lived in California for 6 years. She is completely fluent, but wants to study the Bible on a deeper level. Her husband is not a Christian, though, so that is difficult for her.
Koji (M) - His motivation for practicing English is to get a better job. We have found that we share a common interest in photography! I have a good feeling that we will get to be good friends.
Tone (F) - She is just a few years older than me and is very fashionable. Her father is a pastor, but she told me that she prefers "drinking and going to clubs". Being able to speak English in Japan is kind of a trendy thing, so she wants to get better so that she can impress her friends.
Norie (F) - She is a sweet, sweet 71 year old Buddhist lady who has studied English a lot on her own. She told me today that I was the first real English speaker she has ever talked to. The lesson moves a little slower with her, but she also is not very familiar with Christianity.
Noriko (F) - She lived in Boston for 5 years and is completely fluent (even though she swears she isn't). She wants to learn idioms and more complicated vocabulary. It is difficult for me to tell so far what her interest level in the Bible is.
On Friday night, we had our first party with our readers. The goal is to help them get to know each other and the pastors better, so that when we leave they will still have a connection to the church. We decided to teach them the card game "Spoons". It was a smash hit, to be sure!
The final round - Ian versus Kobayashi.
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